Studying pathogenesis can be an important process in developing antibiotics and therapeutics, by identifying potential targets for drugs to act on. By inhibiting the function of virulence factors, or designing monoclonal antibodies to target a specific antigen, the pathogenicity of a target pathogen can be decreased.
Anti-virulence factor therapeutics can inhibit the synthesis of virulence factors, or sequester the virulence factor once it has been synthesised and released. Anti-sense oligonucleotides (ASO) could be used to inhibit the synthesis of a specific protein essential in the function of a target organism. This is through either the targeting of RNase H, occlusion of the ribosome binding site, or stalling the ribosome, on the mRNA transcript.
Monoclonal antibodies are another potential anti-virulence factor therapy that could be used with pathogens that are not susceptible to antibiotics. These proteins bind to a specific target, preventing it from having an effect on the patient. As it is possible to develop a monoclonal antibody for virtually any target, this process could be completed for (almost) any virulence factor. Although it is not possible to synthesise Mabs in E. coli, they can be grown in vitro in hybridoma cells – this requires cell culture and an animal to obtain B (plasma) cells from. Future advances in de novo protein design could allow B cells to be designed for specific target antigens, removing the need to use an animal.
By sequestering the virulence factor with a Mab, the immune function may restore to a level capable of resolving the infection.